Reach the Beach 2011

On July 25th, MK wrote:

 I am so sorry to say this, but I can't do it this year! ...but did some how have a dream last night that you reported that Warriors had their fastest year ever. 

MK's message was quite foreshadowing.  This year as with last year, I had several potential warriors bow out. But the team we fielded was our fastest. Ever.

From our 2010 team, Kevin, Kara, and Syed returned for more punishment.  Mark, an original Warrior, came back this year despite having his wedding scheduled for the next weekend.  Kevin invited Britt along, who we scavenged from another team  I reached out to Sarah who similarly was part of another team before joining us.  Naomi took some convincing, not only due to the normal issues of cost and time commitment, but because Radie and her Road Soda team were also looking for runners crazy enough to sign up for such an event.  With Radie's blessing, I did just enough arm twisting and Naomi was in.  By contrast, Daniel and Dan were easy sells. Funny story about Dan- Last fall, my brother Ed told me about how he helped carry some guy a few miles to the finish line on the Mohawk Hudson River Marathon (the same I will be running in a couple days) course because he seemed to have broken his hip.  That crazy guy turned out to be Dan.
 

The Warriors of 2011

Casey and Erin were two last minute surprise drops.  Erin mixed up her dates (sounds familiar) and turned out to have a wedding conflict.  Casey developed a calf issue and was advised to skip RTB by her trusty PT at Finish Line.  Sad face. Because of this, logistics were altered.  We canceled one van out of Brooklyn and picked it up instead in Boston.  This saved us a considerable chunk of change.  Britt became the Van Mama and Syed became the Van Papa for our team.

Thursday the 15th came fast. We packed into the van that afternoon and set out.  Due to traffic suckage, we didn't get to the hotel until past midnight.  Any other year and I'd probably be freaking out about not being able to check the team in that night, a process that takes about 40 minutes if things go smoothly, but this year our start time was 2 PM and there would be plenty of time in the morning.  Why were we starting so late?  Teams are seeded by expected pace time with slower teams starting earlier- the first teams going off at 7:30 AM.  RTB deemed us to be "fast".  In fact, of 450ish teams, only 40 would be taking off after us.  I was a bit surprised, but after plugging our times into my spreadsheet, I decided not to argue for an earlier time.  Yup, we'd be fast.  My spreadsheet doesn't lie.

Britt hands off to Daniel.  Mark approves.

Kara's snuggie matches the sky

That afternoon we took off with maybe 15 other teams, including Better on The Way Down which was made up with a bunch of Brooklynites.  The two A-Team teams would be starting 20 minutes after us.  Would that catch up?  Last year they were a good couple hours faster than The Warriors.  Coach Michael's team, Miles #9, was starting an hour after us.  They seemed worried about finishing on time with such a late start, but I was pretty confident they'd catch us.  Road Soda started at 9am.  Could we catch them?  I really wanted to.  Running into friends and familiar teams during the event is great fun.  But they had a 5 hour head start.  The roads of New Hampshire were about to provide an answer.

This year, I had the pleasure to start things off for us with Leg 1.  I hung back behind the other 20 runners who were toeing the line.  Why?  The kills.  Dan questioned this.  His years of track and competitive racing programmed him to always start hard and hold on.  I on the other hand, enjoy starting relaxed... and then picking off runners like a cheetah running down a delicious meal.  I did just that.  I saluted my team at the back of the pack at the start.  By the time I passed the slap-bracelet baton to Kevin at the end of my first 7.97 miles, my 6:47/mile pace chalked up eleven kills.

The Warriors cheer.

Kara is pumped.

Legs 2 through 6 were chopped up due to the damage of Hurricane Irene.  Shoulders were eroded and one particular bridge had a large section wash away.  Kevin had a nice 3.3 mile run.  Kara followed, then Mark.  Britt was our last runner in Van One, but because of the course changes, Daniel joined us to do his 1.95 mile Leg 6.  The course had to be severed at one point and the race restarted at Leg 7 with a predetermined starting time.

Dan would be starting things off for us again.  He declared to the team that he was going to take it easy and hang with the back of the pack to warm up.  his commitment to this race plan lasted all of a quarter mile at best.  A mile into it, he had killed all his fellow runners in his wave.  By the end of his 7.2 mile leg, he had caught five others from the wave that started 20 minutes before him.  Dan got a taste of blood.  And he liked it.

Though for Dan it didn't seem so, the kills came more scarcely in those first legs than in the past.  We were running with faster teams this year and it would take us longer to catch the the slower ones.  It was my fifth RTB and the timing felt off because of our later start.  Darkness came sooner.  We ran into an issue with transition areas running out of food by the time we arrived.  Syed, our tenth runner, didn't start until around 10 PM.  I once again missed out on the Girl Scout spaghetti at TA 18. Yup, it felt off.  But not wrong.  In fact, it felt quite right.  And as the race progressed, it just kept feeling better and better.

Naomi is suited up, with Syed and Kara.

Dan tackles a night run.

Britt "Cyclops" before her leg.

Kevin is sad he's not running right now.

 

I try to race Van Two.

With one exception.  After Naomi's first run at 9 PM or so, she started feeling quite ill.  I hadn't realized how seriously bad she felt because of the good face she put on.  As Van One was finishing our second shift, Syed and Sarah shared with me what was up.  Already the team was working on contingency plans just in case Naomi couldn't carry on.  Syed wanted to just run her legs as well as his.  Sarah said the same.  The same type of chatter was happeing in Van One.  These individuals were selfless.  We caught up with Van Two at TA 16 while Daniel was on the road.  Naomi was wrapped in a blanket, looking a bit pale and pretty sad.  She didn't want to let down the team- it was obvious.  "If you can't run, we can handle it."  I told her of the talk happening and how her teammates were rallying around her already.  "We don't have to decide now.  Don't worry about it.  Rest.  That's your job.  And we'll see."

Naomi did exactly that.  Van One settled into TA 18 to grab some rest (maybe an hour or two of sleep).  By the time we woke, I received a text from Sarah.

All is well.  Naomi is in the beginning of her second leg.  And oh yeah I got 3 kills Captain!

Our mid-night scare was over. Naomi had a good second leg, destroyed her third leg, and The Warriors marched on toward the beach, chalking up kills along the way.

More than any other team I've assembled, this 2011 iteration had a blood thirst.  "See that guy up there?" Sarah asked Van Two.  "I'm gonna kill him!"  That was her first.  We passed Dan on his third leg.  He threw a nod toward the runner 30 yards ahead of him. "That's number 12."  On Leg 25 Britt embarrassed some poor sap right at the end, because he had the audacity to pass her after she had already killed him. I thought she was going to puke (Sarah actually did end up puking next to a cheering santa after taking her last kill on Leg 28). 

Sarah proudly marks her kills.

For me, my most successful killing leg was my first.  But by far, my favorite was Leg 21.  Syed passed the slap bracelet to me just past sunrise.  My right calf was pretty damn tight by this point due to an injury involving a large piece of wood a couple weeks earlier.  I wasn't sure what I'd be able to do on this hilly route.  I wanted to run hard, but that would depend on my calf warming up.  I asked the van to stop twice for me, at the 2nd mile so I could let them know what pace I was aiming for and at 7 AM so that I could shed all the safety gear.  Not only did my calf loosen up, but the run turned out to be gloriously beautiful.  I would crest a hill and a view of the fog-filled valley below would reveal itself.  I'd crest another and see the mountains in the distance, with the sun coloring the sky just above.  On either side of the road was farmland- horse ranches and cows.  At one particular corner, two dozen cows gathered to watch the runners go by.  One mooed as I approached.  "Thanks," I answered back.  I picked off 8 runners on that stretch.

Hot colors (and Warriors).

Kara on the move.

Mark hauls ass into TA 24.

Daniel and his sweet 'stache.

Dawn brought us closer to the finish and to the teams ahead of us.  We were seeing more and more vans, no longer just missing meals.  By mid morning, we were in the thick of it.  We started also finding aches and pains.  Kara shook off her pain to complete her for legs like a champ.  By the end of my four legs, my calf was bruised and swollen.  I abused it in the hills of New Hampshire.  But after a week, I was pretty much recovered.  Mark wasn't so fortunate.  He entered RTB with some tenderness around his ankle, seemingly nothing to serious.  But throughout the event, he was in pain.  And by the end of his four legs (and his wedding the following weekend) his doctor diagnosed him with a sprained ankle.  Mark and his short-shorts performed marvelously, but at a cost of his next marathon, which he has had to put off.

Mark wears short shorts.  Kevin approves.

Team Miles #9 caught us fairly quickly.  Though we hung out at the same pace for a few legs, they were well ahead before dawn.  We saw A-Team vans around and were tagged by them (with a pretty cool Mr. T magnet).  But they never caught up.  We beat both their teams.  Throughout the night and into the next day, I exchanged texts with Radie and Lela, asking where Road Soda was.  We were getting closer and closer and I was looking forward to seeing my friends.  But it wasn't meant to be.  TA 35 would be the last possible chance.  Van Two did meet up with them and exchanged greetings, but their last runner took off a good twenty minutes before ours.  I'm glad at least one of our vans got to see them though.  And I did finally see them at the finish on the beach.

Daniel ran us home.  The vans arrived shortly after he did, once again getting stuck in traffic.  We met him on the beach and celebrated our victory together with metals and photos.  All in all, we racked up about 200 kills and ran at an average pace of 7:49/mile, 21 seconds per mile faster than last year.  We completed the abbreviated 196 mile course in 25:03:14.  Yup.  Not too shabby.

The Warriors reached the beach.

 The speed is nice (really nice), but it isn't what made this team so much fun.  It's the personalities.  The chemistry.  The positive attitudes and laid back manner.  The team spirit. The challenge. Oh, and the poop jokes, right Sarah?  And Kara's Snuggie.  Syed's two children and AARP card.  And Mark's BM count.  And the spooning.  Getting mooned.   These are the things that make a Yogi come back to running a couple months a year.  And another fly in from Denver to do it all over again. As MK has said in the past, RTB is better than Christmas.

"W" is for Warriors.

Sarah also likes jump shots